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The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Coen Brothers are perhaps better known for their work in colder films such as ‘Fargo’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’ but with ‘The Big Lebowski’ they manage to create a clever and highly enjoyable comedy.
I’ve seen the film a number of times now and on each viewing I have been more impressed by what I have seen. The movie combines a talented cast with each actor bringing their own unique character to the screen, humour that is intelligent and subtle in places, brilliant sets such as those used in the bowling alley, costumes and a soundtrack that brilliantly adds to the feel of film.
Although ‘The Big Lebowski’ is nothing like the films of ‘Fargo’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’, it contains many of the Coen Brothers usual plot devices and techniques that they used. The plot of the film is relatively straight forward, but is layered over with bizarre twists with nothing going as easy as planned. The film is focussed around a millionaire whose wife is kidnapped for a $1,000,000 ransom with Jeffrey Lebowski hiring a ‘bum’ of the same name to act as a middle man in a deal to get here back.
Immediately ‘Dude’ as he likes to be known suspects that the kidnapping is not as straightforward as outlined and that Lebowski’s wife Bunny has kidnapped herself in order to get rich from a man who would not normally allow her such money, sound a bit like ‘Fargo’?
Unlike Fargo which can be seen as a ‘dark comedy’, The Big Lebowski is more a feel-good film that’s style can probably be better compared to an earlier comedy of the Coen Brothers ‘Raising Arizona’, a film also which featured John Goodman (who also appeared in the Coen Brothers’ film ‘Barton Fink’).
I feel that John Goodman’s performance in this film is one worthy of a best supporting actor Oscar. Goodman portrays Walter; one of the Dude’s bowling buddies that becomes involved in the Dude’s task to transfer money between Lebowski and the kidnappers. Walter provides a lot of the film’s humour and best scenes; he is an aggressive war veteran who makes constant references to his fighting at Vietnam and is constantly arguing with fellow bowling buddy Donny.
Donny is portrayed by Steve Buscemi who is one of my favourite actors who seems to play a totally different character in every film he appears in. It seems strange that him and Goodman would go on to star together again in ‘Monsters Inc.’ but the two have great chemistry in this film, Donny is mocked throughout by Walter and the two provide some great scenes for us such as ‘I am the walrus?’.
John Turturro (who starred in ‘Barton Fink’ and later ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’) also features in a less prominent role as Jesus Quintana, a convicted paedophile that is set to facethe Dude’s bowling team in an upcoming tournament round. Although he doesn’t have much time on screen, when he does he provides us with some of the films most enjoyable scenes, in fact this is the case for nearly all the scenes that are set in the bowling alley. Sam Elliott is also used effectively in his role as the mysterious narrator.
There are other strong supporting performances such as those from Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman but the star is undoubtedly Jeff Bridges as ‘the Dude’. Jeff Bridges brings character and style to the leading character who is ultimately a bum that spends his life getting high and bowling with his friends. It’s hard to imagine anybody else in such a role, the film acts an ode to the characters laid back, chilled lifestyle which makes the film so enjoyable.
As it is with other Coen Brothers’ films, the cinematography is superb and the duo have created a fantastic setting for a film. In ‘Fargo’ we saw the gritty and dark atmosphere reflected in the cold setting of North Dakota, in ‘The Big Lebowski’ the Coen Brothers’ use Los Angeles as their location, at times the film can feel dark but at others we get light, as already said the bowling alley provides an excellent setting for many of the films’ scenes. The Coen Brothers’ also use a number of bizarre yet enjoyable dream sequences to give their film another dimension.
RATING:
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The Coen Brothers are perhaps better known for their work in colder films such as ‘Fargo’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’ but with ‘The Big Lebowski’ they manage to create a clever and highly enjoyable comedy.
I’ve seen the film a number of times now and on each viewing I have been more impressed by what I have seen. The movie combines a talented cast with each actor bringing their own unique character to the screen, humour that is intelligent and subtle in places, brilliant sets such as those used in the bowling alley, costumes and a soundtrack that brilliantly adds to the feel of film.
Although ‘The Big Lebowski’ is nothing like the films of ‘Fargo’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’, it contains many of the Coen Brothers usual plot devices and techniques that they used. The plot of the film is relatively straight forward, but is layered over with bizarre twists with nothing going as easy as planned. The film is focussed around a millionaire whose wife is kidnapped for a $1,000,000 ransom with Jeffrey Lebowski hiring a ‘bum’ of the same name to act as a middle man in a deal to get here back.
Immediately ‘Dude’ as he likes to be known suspects that the kidnapping is not as straightforward as outlined and that Lebowski’s wife Bunny has kidnapped herself in order to get rich from a man who would not normally allow her such money, sound a bit like ‘Fargo’?
Unlike Fargo which can be seen as a ‘dark comedy’, The Big Lebowski is more a feel-good film that’s style can probably be better compared to an earlier comedy of the Coen Brothers ‘Raising Arizona’, a film also which featured John Goodman (who also appeared in the Coen Brothers’ film ‘Barton Fink’).
I feel that John Goodman’s performance in this film is one worthy of a best supporting actor Oscar. Goodman portrays Walter; one of the Dude’s bowling buddies that becomes involved in the Dude’s task to transfer money between Lebowski and the kidnappers. Walter provides a lot of the film’s humour and best scenes; he is an aggressive war veteran who makes constant references to his fighting at Vietnam and is constantly arguing with fellow bowling buddy Donny.
Donny is portrayed by Steve Buscemi who is one of my favourite actors who seems to play a totally different character in every film he appears in. It seems strange that him and Goodman would go on to star together again in ‘Monsters Inc.’ but the two have great chemistry in this film, Donny is mocked throughout by Walter and the two provide some great scenes for us such as ‘I am the walrus?’.
John Turturro (who starred in ‘Barton Fink’ and later ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’) also features in a less prominent role as Jesus Quintana, a convicted paedophile that is set to facethe Dude’s bowling team in an upcoming tournament round. Although he doesn’t have much time on screen, when he does he provides us with some of the films most enjoyable scenes, in fact this is the case for nearly all the scenes that are set in the bowling alley. Sam Elliott is also used effectively in his role as the mysterious narrator.
There are other strong supporting performances such as those from Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman but the star is undoubtedly Jeff Bridges as ‘the Dude’. Jeff Bridges brings character and style to the leading character who is ultimately a bum that spends his life getting high and bowling with his friends. It’s hard to imagine anybody else in such a role, the film acts an ode to the characters laid back, chilled lifestyle which makes the film so enjoyable.
As it is with other Coen Brothers’ films, the cinematography is superb and the duo have created a fantastic setting for a film. In ‘Fargo’ we saw the gritty and dark atmosphere reflected in the cold setting of North Dakota, in ‘The Big Lebowski’ the Coen Brothers’ use Los Angeles as their location, at times the film can feel dark but at others we get light, as already said the bowling alley provides an excellent setting for many of the films’ scenes. The Coen Brothers’ also use a number of bizarre yet enjoyable dream sequences to give their film another dimension.
RATING: